TV Ads Maintain High Impact, Study Says

NEW YORK In the midst of a recession, consumers credit media advertising with influencing their purchase considerations, according to a study by Yankelovich and the Television Bureau of Advertising released during a presentation in New York today. The study examined how much influence advertising had on a consumer’s purchase decision, depending on where the consumer was in the purchase cycle.

The study found that in general, media impacts 80 percent of consumers in the awareness phase of the purchase cycle and declines to about 53 percent at the transaction phase. That varied by category. For example, in the travel category, 87 percent of consumers reported being influenced by media in the awareness phase, while 59 percent were influenced at the purchase stage. In the auto category, media influenced 81 percent in the awareness phase and 41 percent in the purchase stage.

Television’s share of media impact is about the same throughout all phases of the purchase cycle, from 54 percent at the awareness stage to 49 percent at purchase.

The purchase funnel [awareness, consideration, preference and purchase] has been widely accepted as an important way of looking at how consumers move toward a buying decision, but until now little research existed to determine the impact of advertising.

“This study breaks new ground and the advertising community has already expressed great interest in seeing our results,” said Susan Cuccinello, svp, research for the TVB.

Conducted between Jan. 29 and Feb. 10, the online study surveyed more than 3,000 consumers to determine the role of TV advertising in driving their actions throughout the purchase decision process, how TV interacts with other media platforms and the role of different media platforms in the cycle. The study measured responses to ads across 15 categories, including auto, financial services, restaurants, department or discount stores, furniture stores, healthcare, entertainment, travel and telecommunications.